


Louder than Thunder

by Sweet_Tea_Owl



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Child Abuse, M/M, Meta!Len, but not what you think
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-16
Updated: 2016-03-15
Packaged: 2018-05-06 07:17:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5407817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sweet_Tea_Owl/pseuds/Sweet_Tea_Owl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The day of the particle accelerator explosion Len was in Central City working and he was hit by the blast</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Acrobats, broken bottles, and Sunshine

Len has always protected his sister no matter what. Even when they were too young to run away Len was protecting Lisa. At the time she wasn't old enough to realize that anything but silence would set Lewis off so if she did something to anger him Len would have to do anything he could think of to catch Lewis' attention. But sometimes no matter what he did he couldn't deter Lewis from 'teaching' Lisa a lesson, Lewis would just knock him down or lock him in a closet and make him listen while Lisa pleaded with him to leave Len alone. Len wasn't the only one who would risk their father's wrath for the other. Lately Lewis's temper had been getting so bad that Lisa had had to stay home several times because the bruises on her face hadn't faded yet. Last night Lewis had beaten Lisa because she'd kept pleading with him to let her watch an ice skating competition on the tv while he was watching a rerun of some old cop show from the "good old days". Lisa had cried when Len had left to go to school because that day the entire school was going to see the circus. Lisa had been dying to see it all week. The only thing Lisa loved more than ice skaters were acrobats. 

  
When the bus arrived the teachers were barely managing to the kids corralled into the main tent. The circus had been set up in Central City’s largest park. All around Len where his screaming classmates running around trying to see if they could find the tigers or the elephants he wasn’t sure which ones. Finally they were all in the tent and the show started. There were acrobats and elephants, clowns, tigers, and the whole time if you were sitting anywhere close to the physics teacher you would be getting a lecture on how the acrobats were using inertia and centripetal force. A couple seats farther from him the biology teacher was telling the children around her to not enjoy the elephants so much because they only preformed because they had been forced to even though this circus was notorious for their work with animal rights. Luckily Len had managed to get a seat near the art teacher in the front row who said nothing but just sighed dreamily whenever the horses ran past her. The show was just nearing to a close when the ringmaster entered the ring.

  
“We have a wonderful surprise for you tonight!” He said, twirling his stick to point at the entrance he came from, “This amazing performer has come out of retirement for one last show! Please give it up for the Amazing Leo!”

  
From the opening where the ringmaster was pointing a shuffling hunched over form had appeared. A small old man with a cane was slowly making his way to the center of the ring. Len couldn’t see anything remarkable or _amazing_ about the old man. He was wearing a blue patterned sweater and khakis that made him look like he'd gotten lost on his way to church. Behind him was a small oxygen tank rolling along and attached to it were clear plastic tubes leading up to his nose. It seemed that even with the oxygen tank he was having hard time breathing but he made it to center and he paused. For a couple minutes he didn't say anything, he used the time to catch his breath. The ringmaster tried to hand him a microphone but he just waved him off. In the background a band started to play _You Are My Sunshine_. Then the old man took a deep breath… And he started to sing. The singing itself wasn't what was amazing. What was amazing was the fact that the singing seemed to be coming moving around the tent as if the old man himself was making his way through the crowd. Before the man had started singing the audience had been whispering and Len’s classmates had been making fun of the performer's name. Now all you could hear was the ancient wavering voice as it drifted through the baffled masses.

  
Before Len knew it the man had stopped singing and spell was broken. And like a cliche in a movie one person started clapping slowly and the rest followed. Without a further word or even a bow the Amazing Leo left the ring. The ringmaster walked back in and made a pun about ending on a high note which Len would have criticized had he been listening because that was a terrible pun. No Len was too busy trying to figure out how the man did it.

  
Now no matter what Len’s dad said Len was pretty smart. Really smart actually. It took him a week of spending his afternoons at the library with Lisa to figure out it was a form of ventriloquy and another two weeks in the shed in the backyard, or in the house when Lewis decided to drink at a bar instead, to do it himself. For a while he could only get his voice a couple inches ahead of him and he couldn't mask his mouth worth shit, but three weeks later he got it a couple feet away from himself and his lips remained still as rock. However, no matter how hard Len tried he couldn’t get his voice to go out as far as that man had and he couldn't get it to go behind him. He couldn't figure it out no matter how hard he tried and he would have spent more time obsessing over it but something had been happening at work and Lewis was even more on edge than usual.

  
The first time he used his new talent Lisa had just accidentally knocked a book off a table. Ordinarily she would have gotten away with verbal abuse but Lewis had come home from a bar plastered and red in the face with rage. She had tried to pick it up as fast as she could while apologizing profusely but Lewis was too far gone that night and was had been looking for and excuse. Before Len knew what was happening Lewis had Lisa backed into a corner. Len knew that tonight they should get out the house or their father might actually beat them to death so he did the first thing that came to mind that would get both him and Lisa out. Len threw his voice to the left of Lewis to make it seem like Len was right beside him and while he looked over to find him and backhand him back for interfering with Lisa's lesson, Lisa quickly slipped past him and ran out the back door after Len. Lisa had learned to act first and ask questions later.

  
They ran and hid in an alley. As soon as Lisa had deemed herself safe she started barraging her brother with questions. Len explained he had learned to do it after seeing a circus performer do it and after Lisa was satisfied with his explanation Len threw his voice different places to make it seem like he was having a conversation with the dumpster or the cat that made its way into the alley. He even told knock knock jokes to make his sister laugh and distract her until she fell asleep. They stayed there in the alley curled up on a grate that had hot air coming out of it until dawn. This wasn't the first time they'd had to sleep in that alley and it certainly wasn't the last. From then on, whenever he thought he could get away with it, Len would distract Lewis and get his sister to safety. Sometimes Lewis would catch him before he could get away but Len never used his talent for himself. Everything Len did was always for Lisa.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The old guy is singing is "You Are My Sunshine" by Norman Blake but like imagine it in a minor key to set the mood idk I couldn't find anything else I liked sung by an old guy  
> This is my very first fanfic to be posted. Please let me know if it sucks shit  
> Thank you Marauder5sos for giving me the confidence to go through with this  
> Sorry if this is too short... but there won't be more until next week probably because it's finals week for me right now.


	2. Security, Blasts, and Raw Throats

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The particle accelerator turns on today

Len growled. This wasn't supposed to be happening. He had been hiding in a closet with the last moron left on his team for half an hour now. If they had just listened to him and had stuck to his plan and time frame they wouldn't be in this mess. There was a reason Len had plans. They had just entered the hallway to the room containing the safe holding an original Monet of a snow-scape worth around $13,009 million that Len had been dying to get his hands on. He had been planning this heist for months in preparation for the particle accelerator turning on.

Everyone would be tuning in to watch Dr. Wells give his speech and no one would be paying attention to the priceless paintings ripe for the taking and Len would be back home in time to watch the particle accelerator being turned on. Instead two of the three men he had taken with him on the job had gone off half cocked and ran into a room that would have been empty during the speech but was instead full if security. Both had been apprehended and they had sold Len out immediately.

So there Len was trapped in a supply closet with what appeared to be the only loyal hired gun in Central City. He had gone ten minutes without hearing anything and it was five minutes until the accelerator was turned on. Slowly he opened the door and peered out into the hall way. He saw no one.

"Come on, I'm not leaving this building without that painting" Len motioned for the henchman to follow him. The henchman followed him. He knew how much that painting was worth and knew he'd be getting a bigger cut due to his loyalty. They made it to the safe without running into any security. Len had the safe cracked and open in what was probably his best time. Nothing like a time crunch to make you improve. He pulled out the painting and shut the safe.

They were making their way back down the hallway and just about to turn a corner when Len heard footsteps. A lot of footsteps. Len glanced out a window. Through the rain he could just make out the lights from the ceremony at the accelerator accross the river. They had just turned it on. He motioned for the henchman to stay quiet and waited for the security team to get closer. Just as they were about to pass Len threw his voice to make it seem like it was coming down one of the radios on their hips.

"I've got a visual on the suspects," Len paused, "They're running down a hall way-" The particle accelerator exploded.

For three seconds all Len felt and saw was white fire. Then the light faded and Len's throat was on fire but he could see. He'd been tossed up against the wall by the explosion. The security team was out cold but so was his henchman. Len pushed through the fire in his throat and got up. He quickly made it to the getaway car which hadn't been damaged by the explosion thankfully. He sat the painting down in the back seat. He had kept a hold of the painting the entire time. No way in hell he was leaving the painting now that he'd survived an explosion with it. It had sentimental value now.

Len got in the drivers seat and sped out of the wreckage of the blast radius. There was glass everywhere and a couple of cars had been blown over. Everywhere he looked there was destruction. As time passed and he left the wreckage, growing closer to the safe house, the burning in throat instead of getting better, was getting worse. He pulled up outside the abandoned warehouse and stumbled in. The pain was causing his vision to tunnel. The black closed in and Leonard Snart passed out on a couch. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know if there's anything I could be doing different. I'm dying for feed back.


	3. Pain Killers, Paintings, and Dissapearing Bruises

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lisa and Len start to notice somethings not quite right

When Len finally swam back to consciousness he felt like he'd downed a boat full of tequila and it had not only given him a life long hangover but also burned his throat permanently. He didn't need to open his eyes to know that there was a light on somewhere in the room, he felt it in his bones. Len's head pounded but he sat up slowly and opened his eyes. Lisa slammed her palm down on the coffee table in front of him and he flinched at the loud noise.

"What the fuck Lenny?" Lisa shouted, "I thought you were out on a heist not getting plastered." She was mad but she handed him a glass of water and some aspirin anyway.

"I di-" Len coughed and took the pills and drank the entire glass of water in the hopes that his throat would stop throbbing. He tried again, "I didn't get drunk Lise, I was out on a heist in that building across the river from the particle accelerator," Lisa gasped and was in front of him in an instant checking him for injuries. Apparently she'd heard about the explosion.

"Lisa I'm fine, I didn't get injured!" Len grabbed her hands and they met eyes having a silent battle of wills. Lisa let go and Len continued, "The only thing that really hurts is my throat for some reason. It doesn't really make sense. Nothing hit my throat. If anything, my back should hurt from when I was slammed into the wall from the blast."

"Lenny! I thought you said you didn't get injured! Getting slammed into a wall by a blast from an explosion that happened literally yards away doesn't sound like not getting injured. Take off your shirt right now Len!"

Len stood up, taking off his shirt, and showed her his back, "See? It's just some bruising. Nothing that won't heal." He turned around and Lisa looked even angrier, "What?"

"Lenny, why are you lying to me? There's nothing on your back." Lisa had reached that calm angry state that never failed to make Len crumble.

"I'm not lying. The painting I stole should still be in the back of the car. Its Monet's L′entrée de Giverny en hiver," Len started to put his shirt and coat back on, momentarily pushing the thought that he had felt like he had bruising before he'd passed out. He remembered feeling pain shoot up his spine when he'd slid into the get-away car. Lisa followed him out to the car. Now that it was light out Len could see black scorch marks and dents covering the side that had been facing the blast and Len was momentarily grateful it hadn't been tipped over. He pulled open the back door and stood back so Lisa could see for herself. She pulled out the painting and looked at Len.

"This proves nothing. You could've stolen the painting, been out before the explosion happened, and then went and got victory drunk," Lisa looked unimpressed, "Because if you are telling me the truth Lenny, then you survived an explosion, which was  _huge_ by the way; got slammed against a wall and bruised, and then you drove yourself home. And now all your bruises and cuts are healed."

"How do you know I got cut?" Len didn't remember getting cut, he could only remember his throat burning.

"There is dried blood all over your face and your coat has holes in it."

"What?! Why did you think I'd gotten drunk then?" Len held open the warehouse door for Lisa.

"Wishful thinking. If you have healed all your injuries from last night that means something extra happened to you," Lisa shrugged.

"What exactly do you think happened to me?"

"I don't know. Tell me what you everything you remember."

"I already told you, my throat felt like it had been ripped out. I wonder if it had anything to do with me throwing my voice right as the explosion happened," Len paced across the room.

"That's it! Maybe something happened with that!" Lisa grabbed Len's hands excitedly, "I mean it's the only thing left that hurts right?"

"Yeah but what has that got to do with accelerated healing Lise?" Len tried to think of a more logical explaination, "Maybe I wasn't thrown against the wall as hard as I thought I was."

"Yeah, maybe..." Lisa grabbed her coat.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going out to ask around," Lisa shrugged, "Maybe you're not the only one that's been affected. I'll let you know if you're just a freak of nature or if more people are feeling weird too."


	4. ???

I think I'm probably going to delete this fic I dunno. It's not that good and I have so much other stuff I'm working on. If you really like it maybe I'll try to continue it.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time so please be gentle


End file.
